American Venus Williams and Russian Vera Zvonareva have clinched the two remaining singles spots in the Sony Ericsson Championships to be played in Doha from November 4 to 9, 2008.

Aiming for the season-ending title and a share of the record prize money of $4.45 million, the best eight singles players and four doubles teams of the 2008 season will take part in the prestigious competition.

It will be Venus Williams’ third appearance at the event. The previous two times, in 1999 and 2002, she was a semifinalist. Zvonareva will be making her second appearance, having fallen in the round robin stage in 2004.

Six players had qualified for the Sony Ericsson Championships before Venus Williams and Vera Zvonareva: Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, Serena Williams, Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, and Svetlana Kuznetsova. (photos: Getty Images)

Maria Sharapova is featured in this month’s issue of Russian Vogue. Read more »

Ana Ivanovic’s consistency seems to be getting back on track. The fourth-ranked Serb reached her second semifinal in two weeks with a 6-4 6-4 win over in-form Flavia Pennetta at the Generali Ladies Linz.

Both players contributed to a final-like quality of the match, which remained in the balance until the final ball. The seventh-seeded Pennetta was, however, troubled by a serve that produced seven double faults, while Ivanovic used her strong forehand to give her an edge.

The top-seeded Ivanovic will take on No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the Linz semifinals. Radwanska advanced with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory over Russian fifth seed Nadia Petrova.

The third known semifinalist is Vera Zvonareva, seeded second, who defeated seed No.8 Alize Cornet 7-5 6-1. The win earned Zvonareva the final place in the eight-player field for the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.

The last player to reach the semis will be either France's Marion Bartoli or Alona Bondarenko. They are currently playing the third set. (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)

Haha, according to the newly-launched official website of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in Mandarin, Ana Ivanovic is still number one in the world! Maybe there is a different ranking system in China.

Hm, hm, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour promoted the brand new website before fully preparing it? Not good.

Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic confidently defeated home favorite Sybille Bammer in the second round of the Generali Ladies Linz.

Ivanovic beat the 24th-ranked Austrian 6-4 6-2 to book a first career meeting with in-form Flavia Pennetta of Italy, seeded seventh at Linz.

The world No.14 Pennetta reached the last eight thanks to a straightforward 6-3 6-1 victory over Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova.

Will last weak’s Tennis.com Zurich Open finalist Flavia Pennetta be too much for current Ana Ivanovic? I would love to hear what you think? I believe Flavia is more likely to win this one. (photo: Getty Images)

In an interview for French magazine Numero Hommes, American actor Josh Hartnett revealed his liking of Ana Ivanovic.

Who would you rather be stranded on a desert island with: Oprah Winfrey, Donatella Versace, or Hillary Clinton?
Man!

It's like you're gonna spend the rest of your life there.
Ugh! Ugh! Man, you know what? Can I just pick someone else?

And who might that be?
Woof…I would have to go with Ana Ivanovic.

Who on earth is she?
She's a tennis player.

(source: HCFoo's Tennis Blog)

Jelena Dokic was once ranked fourth in the world, reached the semifinals of Wimbledon in 2000, and was a two-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist. The traumatic experience of having to leave her family led to Dokic’s career collapse, but the 25-year-old is now steadily working on her return to the top.

"I was on my own, and I was learning for two or three years what to do, where to go and who I could rely on," Dokic told Reuters in an interview.

"Once you feel that you've lost your family you've pretty much lost everything. You can lose a match, you can lose a friend, but your family always stays with you. It took a long time to deal with and to realise exactly what I have, which was just myself." Read more »

World No.4 Ana Ivanovic attended last night's Generali Ladies Linz player party, wearing a traditional Austrian dress. Read more »

Here is what Ana Ivanovic will probably wear at the first two Grand Slams of 2009 – Women's adilibria Dresses from adidas.

The dresses have a drop waist and pleats on the shoulder and bottom of skirt for movement and ease of the garment in motion.

The violet one is for the 2009 Australian Open, while the cyan version is for the 2009 French Open.

What do you think of the dresses? I find them somewhat conservative, would like them to be more open. The colors are nice, though. However, at first glance I don’t see Ana in those dresses. But who knows, I might change my mind when I see them on her.

I’m reading that Slovakian world No.20 Dominika Cibulkova is dating Austrian tennis player Jurgen Melzer, ranked 35th in the world. When did the 19-year-old Dominika end her relationship with Gael Monfils? I have no idea.

Anyway, Cibulkova and Melzer might have hooked up during the US Open, where they teamed up for mixed doubles.

Melzer is something of a lady-killer on the Tour, as he previously dated Anastasia Myskina and Nicole Vaidisova. (laola1 via WTA Hotties)